First book on Madeleine's disappearance to be published next week

By FIONA BARTON

Last updated at 00:44 31 October 2007

The first book on the Madeleine McCann case will reveal the full list of 'discrepancies' in witness statements, according to its author.

Hernani Carvalho, one of Portugal's best known crime reporters, said his investigation has produced a "series of questions" about the timing of the child's disappearance from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.

Mr Carvalho, whose book Maddy 129 is published next month (November), covers the 129 days from May 3, when Madeleine vanished, to September 9 when Kate and Gerry McCann left the Algarve after being named suspects in the case.

He said: "The book presents essentially a series of questions. The first is, what happened to Madeleine McCann?

"After all the information about the case, what stands out is a series of doubts and contradictions, facts that do not fit.

"We don't have a theory about what happened to Madeleine. What we have is all the things that are said to have happened and do not match up.

"What we want is to place doubts. Why do the couple's friends' statements and their own not tally?

"Why is it that the times which they say they went to check on the children in the apartment, when they say they were in the restaurant, do not coincide."

The TV journalist said he and co-author, Luis Maia, decided to end their book when the McCanns went home to Rothley in Leicestershire because their departure marked the "the end of a cycle"

He said: "Nobody yet knows how it will end. But we had to find an end.

"The end of our story happens when – having already been made 'arguidos' (suspects) – Kate and Gerry decided to abandon Portugal and return to England, something they said they did not want to do."

The 208 page book will also examine the way the case has been reported all over the world.

"The reader will have in the book a very global perception of the case, even in terms of analysing the way in which the story was covered," said Mr Carvalho, who works for Portugal's top commercial television channel, TVI.